Price of Living
by Codyknight22
Summary: The darkness returned, and they weren't ready for it. Remnant is now ruled by Grimm, with the people just trying to survive. No one is safe anymore, and those that are alive are afraid. Who lives and who dies? Future apocalypse AU. Rated M for reasons you should be able to guess.
1. Reliving the Past

Price of Living Ch. 1: Reliving the Past

**I am now going to start another story. I just felt like writing something new, and I had some small ideas. Stared at what I had for a minute, and whipped this together. I am amped for this one though. AU, future, and the more important details will be revealed as time goes on. So, let us begin a new journey.**

Ruby tossed and turned in her sleeping bag. Her nightmares had started up again, not that this was unexpected at all. The nightmares always returned to her, and it wasn't anything that was too surprising.

In her dreams, Ruby saw Beacon. It was just a normal night at school. Ruby was running around with her friends, pestering Weiss and Blake while talking with Yang. Everything seemed normal to her.

But then it all changed. The moon above them shattered, leaving shattered pieces of rock all around where the moon had been. Somehow, the gravity around it held it all in one place. But that moon shattering signaled something, it signaled the end of things.

Next, the sun was covered by a black cloud. But this wasn't a storm black cloud, it was pure black. It didn't look natural, not at all.

Red slowly polluted the sky, leaving the place with an erie look. All of them stopped and stared at it. Ruby had read a fantasy book about this once. The book started out with the series of events that were taking place at that moment, and then ended with a big fight.

It all clicked in Ruby's mind just a little too late.

Grimm began running towards Beacon at full speed. All of the guards stationed at the front started to fight them, but soon they were overwhelmed. No one had ever seen so many Grimm at one time. Beowolves, Ursai, Boarbatusks, Death Stalkers, King Taijitus, Nevermores, and so much more. RWBY all pulled out their weapons to fight, but then they realized something. Even the teachers who stood up to fight this amount of Grimm were all being killed. Nothing was stopping them from moving forward, and Ruby knew that her team couldn't either.

She ordered the four of them to run, and they all made a beeline for the pathway that lead out of Beacon and away from the Emerald Forest {since that place was already infested with Grimm on a normal basis}. Ruby watched as Dove and Sky from CRDL were taken down, as was Velvet and her team, and so many more.

The girls would escape to only learn later on that the criminals that they had spent much of their three years at Beacon hunting, Roman Torchwick, Cinder Fall and company, had also been taken down by the Grimm. No one was safe from this attack. No one was safe from the return of the darkness.

"Ruby!" Someone finally snapped. Ruby shot awake, and saw her older sister, Yang Xiao Long standing over her. "We have to get moving," Yang said. Ruby nodded, and came to a standing position. She rolled up the sleeping bag that she had taken up, and slung it over her shoulder. Ruby then found her supplies, and gave them a similar treatment.

Ruby then looked up and saw her team doing the same. They had all escaped as a group, which had worked to their advantage when it came to fighting Grimm. Over time, features about them had changed. Ruby now wore a simple black top with red lining and long pants with the same color scheme. Her face was covered with grime and dried up blood, and her cloak had become torn from the uses of it.

Weiss had to completely ditch her prior attire as it didn't work well on the run. Luckily for her, Weiss had picked up a heavy, white, long sleeved coat with a light blue top. She also had found a white and light blue pair of pants to accompany them. Her face was also covered with grime and dried up blood, and the bottom end of her pony tail had been cut off by a Grimm a long time ago.

Blake's entire outfit had become dusty and dirty. She didn't have to ditch anything as her outfit actually held up much better then either Ruby or Weiss'. But, her hair had become spotty in certain areas from where Grimm took a good swipe at her, and her face was also covered in grime and dried up blood.

Yang was the one who had really changed the least. Her outfit remained completely fine, since it was already designed as a more casual wear sort of thing. But she was the only one who had to pick a new weapon, since they didn't have the resources to keep Ember Celica fed with Dust. So Yang had found an old mace in a town. It could fold up very easily into a small box. It was a rough adjustment for Yang, but she had to adapt to survive. Yang also had kept Ember Celica, but she only used it in emergencies. Her face and body hadn't passed over the treatment of grime and blood, which surprised no one.

All four of the girls had scratches and bruises lining their bodies. None of them had a proper shower in months, and it had been almost as long since they had gotten a chance to clean themselves up.

As far as they knew, they were the only ones to survive. They didn't know who was still alive, only who was dead. All of their scrolls had no access to anything, and the world was in ruins. Any town you went to was destroyed and filled with dead bodies. Occasionally you'd get lucky and find out that all of the Grimm had been left. If you were even luckier, there'd be a small enough amount of Grimm where you could easily kill them and get your next several meals from them.

In the year since the darkness returned, all RWBY had done was try and survive. They spoke nothing of their former friends, even though they all thought about them. They spoke nothing of their family, even though they all thought about them. Above all else, they spoke nothing of either the past or distant future, even though their nightmares were all polluted by them.

The rest of RWBY finally finished packing, and they just started to walk. They didn't know what direction they were headed, only that they had hoped that whatever laid on the end of the path was better then what was at the beginning of it.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked. "We just passed through Fevertown a few days ago. Any ideas as to where we might be headed next?"

"Lisantros should be this way," Weiss said. "It should have plenty of food, water, Dust, and empty homes. But, it's also most likely filled with Grimm."

"Lisantros was a Dust mining town, right?" Blake asked. Weiss just nodded. "We'd better be cautious then. Every Dust town we've encountered has been almost as bad as Beacon." The girls all went silent at the mention of their old school, but Yang was the first to shrug it off.

"I say we check it out," Yang said. "We're in bad need of supplies after we passed up Fevertown."

"Okay, that wasn't passing up," Weiss started. "That was recognizing that there were too many Grimm _outside _the town. I wasn't eager to see what was inside of it."

"Weiss is right," Ruby said. "But so is Yang. We're beginning to run low on a lot of things, ammo being the big one. I'm down to one magazine for Crescent Rose. From what I understand, that's about as good as any of us right now." The other three nodded, and pulled out their weapons.

"Lisantros it is," Blake said. "No way that anyone could have raided all of it's supplies. Plus, this is pretty far away from any forests. Those places seemed to make it out fairly well."

"Then Lisantros it is," Ruby said. She hefted Crescent Rose on her shoulder, and walked forward.

_Somewhere Else: Team JNPR_

Jaune cautiously took a step forward, and made sure that his shield was covering his face. He had been fortunate that his team had been out on a small mission when the darkness returned. His team had gotten the word that Beacon was overrun just in time to head off in another direction. Much like RWBY, JNPR had no idea who was still alive. Everyone was dead as far as they were concerned. It was easier to think that everyone was dead rather then hope that they were alive.

Jaune had been oddly suited for this. None of his weapons used Dust, and his sword and shield combo were very good to have in this situation. Low maintenance weapons, and high protection clothing with his armor. His face had received a fair amount of beatings, but his clothing had remained widely untouched. Some missing pieces here and there, but otherwise fine.

Pyrrha had also remained relatively fine. She was already armored, and her shield had helped protect her. The bottom piece of fabric on her was torn slightly, but she could live with it. Her body was covered with scrapes and bruises, but Pyrrha was fine with it.

Nora had somehow remained relatively fine. Her outfit was completely untouched, and apart from the stray cut or bruise, she was fine. Somehow the girl's frantic style of fighting had worked to her advantage in terms of staying fine.

Ren's clothing was thrashed. His robe had been so badly damaged, that he had been forced to grab a new one. But this robe was already torn across the back and front, with only an undershirt really concealing his body. His ponytail had been taken off by a Grimm a while back, and he had never tried to grow it back.

The four of them were also running low on ammo, but that hadn't changed for a while. They rarely fired off a round of anything, and only really did so when they absolutely had too.

Jaune finally lowered his shield, and sighed in relief.

"Nothing's here," Jaune said. The rest of his team emerged from the trees, and they looked over the town. "What is this place?"

"Fireston," Pyrrha said. "This place had a pretty small population permanently, but a big food market."

"And it looks like no one died here," Ren contributed. "All of them just up and left."

"Food," Nora groaned. "Oh, that sounds so good." Jaune nodded, and started to walk forward. Him and Pyrrha were in the front of the ground and Nora was just behind them while Ren remained off to the side slightly. It was a good formation since Grimm rarely attacked from anything but the front. If they did, Nora was strong enough to take them down with one swing and Ren was fast enough to get in enough swings to kill any Grimm.

JNPR reached the city, and Jaune leaned against a doorframe. He signaled for Pyrrha to open up the door, and the amazon complied. Jaune rushed inside, and held up his shield. He slowly tapped his sword on the ground, but heard nothing. He finally lowered his guard, and signaled for everyone to come in.

"Nora, Ren, check the downstairs," Jaune ordered. "Pyrrha and I will take the upstairs. With any luck, there'll be lots of food in the kitchen and enough beds for four upstairs. If not, we check somewhere else. Okay?" Everyone nodded, and Jaune looked up. "Home sweet home," he muttered.

**End: Initial questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.**


	2. Others

Price of Living Ch. 2: Others

**Always makes me happy to see that a story gets positive feedback right off the bat, but I do have to clarify something. When I said Dust in reference to Yang's gauntlets, I meant Dust rounds. So just in general, ammo is scarce and without ammo Yang's weapons aren't really effective. So my apologies for not making that more clear. Thank you to everyone for getting this to 10 follows and 10 favorites early on. I always appreciate the support.**

Another piece of trees were cut down, and the man continued forward. He wore a dirty black coat, with a wrinkled scarf to accompany it. He had a pair of mud covered glasses on, along with a cane that was sprinkled with dust around it. He looked around his surroundings, and sighed.

It had been a while since Beacon had been destroyed and Ozpin had been forced to run. He had tried to fight off the Grimm at first, but eventually {like everyone} he had been forced to run. It wasn't even worthy of being called a retreat, it was running.

Only himself, Glynda, and Peter had made it out as far as the staff went. He hadn't seen any others make it out alive, so his only assumption was that everyone else had perished.

After a short period of time, Peter went down in a blaze of glory. He died fighting off Beowolves so that Glynda and Ozpin could escape. A while after that, Glynda ran out of Dust to power herself with. Her aura carried her a little bit further, but then she had ultimately met her end. That left Ozpin on his own, in the wild, surrounded by Grimm.

He finally stopped just outside of an abandoned cabin, and slowly opened up the front door. After a quick inspection, Ozpin smiled in satisfaction. There was no one here, there were no Grimm here, and better yet, the place hadn't been raided by either of those two species either. A small bit of good fortune to finally roll his way.

He calmly sat down on the couch, and pulled out the sword that rested within the center of his cane. He lifted it up, and carefully inspected the blade. It still appeared to be sharp, which was also good. His blade's steel hadn't yet lost any of the quality that remained in it. He could go weeks without sharpening it, and the blade would still cut through bone as if it were cheese.

He leaned back in the bed, and looked up at the sky. It was permanently stained with a red color, day or night. It served as a reminder to anyone who remained alive. It reminded them of the darkness, and what it stood for.

The darkness, in essence, was the red in the sky. It had darkened everything, but not as literal as figurative. The red presence had given Grimm strength, confidence, and most importantly, increased numbers. The darkness wasn't what anyone was expecting, especially not Ozpin. He had no idea of exactly what to expect, but the hell he was given certainly didn't qualify for his expectations.

Now he was on his own. Alone in a cabin, with no idea of where he was going or where he should be going. But, Ozpin had a goal. He wanted to see how many other survivors he had, and then try and reform Beacon. Beacon had been a spot of safety, maybe he could get it up again.

His mind drifted sadly into the realm of his fallen friends. He had personally seen Bartholomew and Peach fall to Grimm, along with Peter and Glynda's deaths as well. Four of his oldest friends, gone. He had had hope that maybe Qrow had survived, but even at that he wasn't very confident. That was always the tricky part about being the headmaster, you always had to remain strong. No matter what.

_Elsewhere_

Cardin dragged himself along the path, and sighed. He had been fortunate enough to be wearing armor, and so his wardrobe had been been widely unaffected. But his hair was in disarray, along with how badly damaged any real piece of flesh was. All of it was scratched, bruised, or otherwise battered. He still had his mace, but he had lost almost everything else, including most of his team.

But Russell had survived as well. His partner had lost his mohawk entirely in a fight, his left eye was black, and he had a single scar going across his chin now. His clothing was already torn, and so it hadn't really changed much. His spiked shield had been snapped a little bit, but it had maintained it's strength. His sword was also in fairly good condition.

Both remaining members had watched their friends die. They had only just escaped Beacon as a team, and they hadn't lasted much longer. Dove and Sky had been jumped by a group of Beowolves, and they tried to fight them off. But neither of them were good enough to survive. Cardin and Russell had no choice but to run, but they had heard the sounds. The horrible, horrible sounds that Dove and Sky had made as the Beowolves tore at their bodies.

A smaller group had broken off and gone after Russell and Cardin. In fact, both of them should have been dead. But, there was one thing that went their way that day. That thing came in the form of a visiting boy, who had been forced to flee Beacon along with the students.

At this point, the boy had to completely abandon his shirt as it was torn badly. His jeans were already torn, and they hadn't really become more so since then. Some things he was forced to abandon, such as the chain in his pocket. But most things had survived. His hair had been matted down, so he just had a flat golden top. His face was also bruised and cut badly, but he just ignored it. His weapons had remained completely fine and functional, making things all the better for him. Perhaps most impressively was the fact that his tail had remained completely untouched. A single monkey tail that was the only thing that had kept him alive multiple times.

"Where are we?" Russell finally asked.

"I don't know," the monkey boy said.

"How could you not know, Sun?" Cardin asked. "I thought that you knew where you were taking us?"

"I did," Sun agreed, twitching his tail reflexively. "That was until the fourth group of Grimm, the Ursai to be precise, threw us completely off course. I don't understand how this keeps happening to us."

"Maybe check your scent," Russell suggested. Working with a Faunus before things went to shit was pretty low on CRDL's list of things to do before the darkness returned. After that had happened, however, things had changed.

The smaller group had caught up with Russell and Cardin. They had done their best to fight them off, but eventually they had been pinned. Both boys were almost certain that their deaths were imminent, but then Sun had showed up.

He had managed to kill enough of the Beowolves to allow Cardin and Russell to start fighting back more properly. They had finished off the remainder of the group, and they had simply run off. It was too easy to just accept that they would be working with each other and that introductions were best kept out of danger.

But ever since then, the three of them had been plagued by poor luck. Seven different groups of Grimm had attacked them, and that was not including the individual attacks. They hadn't gone a day without a bruise or a bad scratch on their face, and it was starting to wear on them. They needed to find a city for shelter, but nothing was nearby them.

"I've rubbed more crap on my tail then you know," Sun argued. "I must smell like a petunia by now. It's not me, I swear. Plus, haven't you guys done the same?" Russell and Cardin nodded, and Sun just shook his head. "I'm guessing that our luck really is just that shit."

"We're being punished," Cardin muttered. "Somehow this is all punishment."

"Hey man, no one deserves this," Sun argued. "I could have killed and eaten 10 people and not deserved this kind of luck. You're in the clear." Cardin nodded, but kept along. His mace always rested in his hands, as he never wanted to get into a situation where he couldn't get to it. At this point, Cardin was willing to leave nothing up to chance. Their luck was bad from the standpoint of how many times they had been attacked, but it was good since they were still alive.

"Hold up!" Sun said suddenly. Cardin and Russell stopped, and Sun climbed up a tree. He looked out in the distance, and smiled. "Small town, three o' clock. Looks completely abandoned, I don't even see a Grimm."

"Really?" Russell asked hopefully.

"Yup," Sun called back. "Though, they could just not be inside of the town right now."

"We might as well check," Cardin said. He picked up his mace, and started to walk forward. Sun jumped down from the trees, and the group marched forward.

They reached the town shortly, and Cardin realized why it was abandoned. The whole "town" was more like an apartment complex that happened to reside in the middle of the forest. It had exactly three homes and one place that looked like a small market.

"Three houses, huh?" Russell asked. "We could all take our own and-."

"Risk dying?" Sun challenged. "Nuh-uh, that one is the biggest things that we can't do, split up. We'll take the biggest house and hope it has three rooms, deal?"

"Fine," Russell sighed. "Let's do this." Cardin walked up to the front door of the largest home, and tested the door handle. He felt that it was open, and then he slowly pushed it open. Russell raised his shield, and stepped inside first. Sun followed just behind him, his staff in it's nunchucks form, and Cardin was right behind him.

The three of them slowly looked over the house, and found that it was untouched. Neither Grimm nor man had decided to raid this place, which was fortunate. They all checked out the rooms, and found three beds.

"To each their own," Sun said with a grin. "Alright, I'll take the first room, Russell'l take the second room, and Cardin'll take the third room. First watch tonight'll go to me, and then we'll go in order of our room situation." Both Cardin and Russell nodded, since they didn't really have a better way to divide the watch.

Sun set down his small bag in the first room, and jumped onto the bed. He slowly felt himself melt into it, and smiled. He hadn't slept in a bed for a long time, since every other town they had been too was generally overrun. Tonight would be the first night in a long time.

Maybe their luck was finally looking up.

**End: Okay, so this is the last of the introductions. From here on out, I will focus on the groups moving forward. Questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is always appreciated.**


	3. Take the Town

Price of Living Ch. 3: Take the Town

**I would like to ask if anyone had any ideas for a cover? I generally have a pretty good vision, but this time I have none. Though I do know that my knight is completely irrelevant here so if someone could please send in an idea {even if it's not the actual cover itself} that'd be much appreciated. Thank you to everyone for getting me over 20 followers! Always happy to see some good initial support. Time to resume.**

Ruby looked down her scope again, and shook her head.

"I don't see it," she said. "We're not anywhere close to it yet." Everyone let out a groan, and looked up at the sky. The red sun was starting to set, which meant that if they didn't start now, camping would have to come at a price.

Ruby slung her bag off her shoulders, and everyone followed suit. They all picked a tree close to them, and started to make their way up it. When you were in a tree, it was harder for a Grimm to smell you or see you. It wasn't a guarantee of safety, but it was better then lying on the ground and waiting on the mouth of a Beowolf to appear above you.

"We'll wake up at dawn," Ruby said softly. "We all still have our clocks, so we'll divide it into 2 hour shifts, except for me. I'm taking first watch, I'll take a three hour one. Clear?" Everyone nodded, understanding that the current days were 9 hours long. There was no even shifts, and it made the most sense for Ruby to take the longest watch since she had the only weapon with a proper scope. Everyone also knew that a gunshot meant wake up, because ammo was not to be wasted.

"Get some rest," Ruby said as she clicked the start button on her watch. "You'll take watch next, Weiss." Weiss nodded, and curled up in her makeshift sleeping mat. It wasn't comfortable, but it would do.

Everyone else fell asleep, and Ruby just looked down the sight of her scope. Luckily for her, the redness of the sky gave some illumination to the ground below her. She took a deep breath of air, and let it out. Times like this always had her as nervous as possible. It was never fun being on watch, but it was always better then dying.

_Fireston_

JNPR was still awake, but this was by choice. Nora and Ren had found lots of canned foods and reheatable food to be eaten. Jaune and Pyrrha had discovered that there were two rooms with two beds a piece, which meant that everyone got their own. Someone would still have to be on watch, but the sleeping arrangements were better. Plus, they hadn't even explored the other houses yet. The food here could be enough for them to anchor down for a month.

Jaune took one last bite of his canned food, and sighed happily. It was the first real meal any of them had had in a long time, it seemed.

"Watch time," Jaune said. "I was thinking we could go 12 hours in total, so 3 hour shifts. I'll take first watch, since the light will be the best. Nora will go second, Ren will go third, and Pyrrha will take the last one." Everyone nodded, and started to unpack their bags. All of them had been a little bit hesitant, but there were no Grimm to be seen. All they could do was assume that no Grimm were that close at the time of arrival, which meant that even if there were some Grimm now their scent was already faint. It was the closest thing to safety they could get.

Pyrrha carried her stuff up to the room that her and Jaune would be sharing {since Nora and Ren always shared} while Ren and Nora took the other room. Jaune just kept his stuff downstairs, and kept his eyes firmly on the front. No Grimm would ever try to attack from behind, it would always attack form the front. The only thing that changed was the amount of them and how strong each individual Grimm was.

Jaune kept sitting there, and his eyes remained straight at the door. He had a small watch that they had been given at Beacon. They ran off of solar energy, and even though it took longer for them to charge up now they worked just fine.

He heard everyone's doors close, and instantly Jaune knew that everyone else had fallen asleep. He took a deep breath, and leaned back.

It was the first time that {even though he was still ready to fight on a pin drop} he had really gotten a chance to relax in a long time. He had eaten well, he was going to sleep well, and he was calm. It felt... Strange. It gave him time to think about something other then surviving.

He had to admit, his team had all kept him and themselves alive for a long time. They were all to the point of family now, especially since none of them knew if any of their own were still alive. Ren had become the calm and collected older brother type, Nora the hyper little sister, and Pyrrha was... Well she didn't really fit a mold.

How he was still alive was beyond him. He had tried to sacrifice himself multiple times, but every time he always survived. Sometimes it was his armor, sometimes it was his team, and every once in a while it was him, but Jaune always survived. He always lived to see another day, which was not a bad talent to have. But Jaune had made himself a promise, and it was the reason he always took the first watch when Grimm were hunting the most. If it came down to it, it would be him who was the first to go. The rest of his team had to live, even if it meant that he may not.

_Forest: RWBY_

Ruby tossed a stick over at Weiss' sleeping bag, causing the heiress to stir. She sat up, and just sleepily nodded to Ruby. Ruby laid back in her bag without another word, and closed her eyes. Weiss drew her sword, and watched the ground below her. After a few more minutes of this, she stole a glance at the red sky.

When the sky had first gone red, no one thought much of it. They had all assumed that it was simply an eclipse of some kind. No one really knew, especially since that there was nothing in the ancient texts, that this was the darkness.

The darkness came in the form of the red sky. It did no damage itself, but it did amplify the Grimm. They became bigger, stronger, faster, and they reproduced and grew much faster. The Grimm also started to attack in diverse packs. Beowolves and Ursai would join forces, with a Death Stalker aiding them as well. That was what made the darkness so deadly, it made the Grimm stronger. Worst of all, no one had any ideas as to how to beat it. Weiss was left without a plan, and no plan meant you make it up as you go. Sooner or later, that strategy got you killed.

"What are we gonna do?" Weiss muttered.

_The Next Morning_

The four girls were all awake and packing up. The night had been {fortunately} uneventful. None of them had seen a single Grimm, which wasn't too uncommon. It used to be that the deeper you got into the woods, the more dangerous it became. Now it was the deeper you got, the safer it was. The Grimm were moving outwards, thus meaning that it'd be safer.

"Alright," Ruby finally said. "Everybody got their things?" Everyone nodded, and Ruby just started to walk. The other three followed suit, and they began their hike.

It took them about an hour to reach the end of the woods. There was a single road, and on it was a sign that read _Lisantros. _

"Thank god," Yang said happily. "Weiss got our location correct."

"I'm the only one making an effort," Weiss replied haughtily. "I'd like to see you take a crack-."

"She was kidding," Blake said boredly. Weiss' face turned red, and Yang let herself grin. Even after the hell they had gone through, Weiss still maintained a certain royal air to her that it still made her Yang's favorite target. Every girl enjoyed it, because it was still a small distraction.

"Come on," Ruby finally said. "Lisantros isn't getting closer just standing here."

"Wish it was," Yang grumbled.

"You'll have to walk for once," Blake said easily. "It's a hard knock life now, Yang."

"Oh it's not the walking that bothers me," Yang said. "It's all of you. Such an annoying bunch." Blake playfully slugged Yang in the shoulder, and Weiss just sighed.

"If you two are quite done flirting, we have a town to get too," Weiss said annoyedly.

"Right," Blake said. "Let's get going." Yang shrugged, and kept along.

The four girls walked for another two hours. Yang only added in the occasional joke or conversation with someone else after long periods of silence, and Ruby was just silent.

Out of the four of them, Ruby had changed the most since the incident. She had learned to accept her role as a leader, and the other three wanted her to stay in that role because it felt familiar. But now Ruby wasn't trying to lead them in a single raid or fight or clearing party. She wasn't setting an example for them by working hard, she was working hard to keep them alive. It had made the normally cheerful Ruby fairly silent and serious, and it felt strange to all of them. But, everyone hoped that finding a town would calm her down a little bit.

Ruby finally raised up her hand, and everyone came to a stop. Ruby dropped down to the ground, and propped up her sniper. She looked down the scope, and slowly zoomed in. She saw that there was a single town with about 10 buildings in all, and a few Beowolves roaming around it.

"Beowolves," Ruby said. "Not too many of them, but they're definitely there. We can probably take them down if we can get up high and drop down on them." Ruby stood up, and pointed slightly to the right. "That's the only building nearby us that doesn't have a Grimm nearby it." Ruby started to walk, and the others followed along with her.

They tried to stay low so as to avoid any risk of detection, and that seemed to be working. All of the Grimm just continued to wander around the town, leaving RWBY to their own devices. They reached the building, and Yang was the first to climb the ladder. Then Weiss went up, then Blake, then Ruby. Once they were on top of the buildings, Ruby counted out all of the Beowolves.

"Seven," she muttered. "Yeah, we can take out seven without Dust. Everyone, ready your weapons." Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose, Weiss drew Myrtenaster, Blake switched Gambol Shroud to it's katana form, and Yang drew her mace {which she nicknamed Ember's Placeholder}. The four of them spread out, and looked down at a specific Beowolf. All of them were spaced enough to know that they had no risk of hitting another's Beowolf.

"Empty your weapons," Ruby ordered. "Just to be safe." Everyone complied, and pulled out all of the ammunition. While there was always danger in adopting this strategy, all of them felt confident that they could kill off seven Beowolves before they could howl for help. If that happened, then they would have ample time to reload and get to work.

After all of the ammo was tucked away in their ammo pouches, Ruby help up her hand.

3

2

1

RWBY all jumped down from the roofs and towards the Beowolves. Weiss and Blake angled their swords to enter in the top of their Beowolves heads, Yang swung around her mace and crushed her Beowolf's skull, while Ruby landed calmly on her Beowolf's shoulders. She angled her scythe around, and calmly pulled the blade against it's throat. The action was strong enough to separate the Beowolf's head from it's shoulders, and then she jumped off of it and landed with an audible sound.

The other three Beowolves turned towards her, and growled. The first one started to run at her, but Weiss slid in front of it and swung her sword into it's stomach. It let out a single whimper, and then fell over dead. The other two Beowolves turned towards Weiss, but then one gave out a brief howl of pain. It's knee buckled from underneath it, and it was unable to get it's head up before it's skull was split by Yang's mace. The final Beowolf stood to howl, but it never got the sound out. Blake swung around her katana into it's head, and split it in half.

The corpse collapsed to one side, while the other half of it's head fell to the other. Ruby looked around her, and nodded with satisfaction.

"We got them," she said happily. "But we should still be careful and take standard clearing procedures. Yang, Blake, you'll clear the houses while Weiss and I keep watch to make sure that no other Grimm heard this." Yang and Blake nodded, and walked up to a house. Yang tapped her mace against the window, and waited. Ruby just set up her scythe, while Weiss readied her sword.

Yang finally hit 60, and she opened up the door. Blake instantly stepped inside, and raised up her katana defensively. Yang followed in just behind her, and started to walk through the house. They first confirmed that there were no Grimm or Grimm eggs in there, and then they started to check for supplies.

Yang opened up one of the cabinets, and let out a happy noise.

"If the guy who made all of the good food non-perishable is still alive, I owe him my body," Yang said happily.

"I feel as though you don't have to worry about that," Blake called out from the other room.

"Which is why I said that," Yang said happily. She started to pluck out the sweets and canned food, and started to smell them. "All of them smell good," Yang said.

"Fresh-ish food," Blake said. "Plus, we have the Grimm outside for protein." It was fairly common to make food out of Grimm now. Clean and butcher it, it was an excellent source of protein. "It's a shame there's no fish anymore," Blake said.

"You wanna kill a Krakonia and make some sushi?" Yang joked.

"Pass," Blake replied. Blake noticed a safe, and frowned.

"Can the hired muscle please come over here?" Blake requested. Yang nodded, and hefted her mace onto her shoulders. She walked over to the safe, and swung it hard into the front. The lock snapped off, and Blake pulled it open. Both girl's eyes widened at the contents, and Blake turned to face Yang.

"Yup, already on it," Yang said. "RUBY! WEISS! GET IN HERE!" Both girls walked into the home, and the black and yellow pair stepped aside. Ruby and Weiss watched them for a moment, but then their vision focused in on the safe.

"Oh, my, god," Weiss muttered. The safe was full of Dust. Bullets, crystals, powder, everything. It had more Dust then any of them had seen since Beacon. They could restock and then some.

"Fortune favors the bold," Ruby said happily. "Alright girls, let's start loading up. Then, we check the other houses."

**End: Chapters will not always be JNPR + RWBY then CRS + Ozpin, this one just happened to fall into that category. Questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.**


	4. Change

Price of Living Ch. 4: Change

**So I had a couple good ideas for a cover. I have a placeholder image, which actually changed, and it's bloodied coins. I know what my favorite idea is, but I doubt it'd be able to happen. It was to have a picture of Beacon destroyed with an army of Grimm, dead bodies and blood everywhere, along with the red sky {suggested by FlamingGinger}. Yeah, can't find that one online so for right now my placeholder image is just bloodied coins {suggested by NygththeClassy}. If anyone has any way to make the first one happen, or if anyone has a better image of bloodied coins then the only one I found, would be appreciated. Otherwise, thank you to everyone for getting this story to 30 followers and 20 favorites! Let's get going {sorry A/N was so long this time}.**

Sun kept his hand on the window, and looked outside. It had been a full day since they had arrived at the town, and things had been fairly calm. After they had cleared out their house and discovered all of the supplies within it, they took stock and waited around.

It had been a good night's worth of sleep, with things being quiet. It was a rare that they went entire nights where they were left alone by Grimm. For some reason, Grimm often attacked them. Sun was the only one who required ammo for his weapon, so that made some things slightly easier. But overall, they had run almost dry on ammo vey quickly.

Now they had a day to breathe, and three more places to check, and already more supplies then they had been working with for a long time. Time no longer had meaning to them. Basically all they had was the alarm clocks that could only be set to hours, otherwise no way of telling any time.

Sun finally leaned away from the window, and started to walk towards the rooms. The house was one story {like every house} and it had seven rooms. Three bedrooms, one bathroom, one kitchen, one living room, and then a room that they couldn't determine the purpose of. It looked like another living room, but it had no real furniture to conclude that fact.

"Time to talk!" Sun called out. "Come on guys, we've gotta make a plan." The doors opened up, and both Cardin and Russell emerged.

"What?" Cardin said patiently.

"I think it's time to discuss the plans," Sun said. "We're far from being done here in wherever the hell we are." Cardin and Russell nodded, and walked over to the living room.

Sun cleared off a large portion of the table, and took a seat on one side of it. Russell and Cardin formed up on the other side, and Sun opened up a map.

"Found this little gem in the house," Sun said happily. "Apparently this place is called, Murville." He just shrugged, having never heard of it before. Neither Cardin nor Russell had either, so they just looked down at the map. "So Murville is a pretty small, self sustained community. Well, was a pretty small, self sustained community. They have enough supplies per house to feed us for a bit, plus there was a fair amount of Dust."

"Dust," Cardin said slowly. "We haven't had that since the big Ursa attack."

"Bingo," Sun said. "There's not much here, but there's enough to tap into if we need it. I may be able to make a few shells depending on what they have, but first we do have to clear the houses. Russell and I will head inside, Cardin, you'll wait out. If you see anything, get inside and inform us. Do not-."

"Stay and fight," Cardin finished. "I know." Sun nodded, and picked pulled out his staff. He unfolded it into it's normal staff form, and he put it behind it's back. Russell drew a saber, and Cardin raised up his mace. Neither of them needed Dust to run their weapons, which gave them an edge in this world.

The three of them walked outside, and Sun looked around. He carefully combed over every aspect of the town, and then waved his hand at the closest house. He started to slowly tread forward, with Cardin and Russell following just behind him. He reached the house, and stepped to the side of the door. Russell joined him on that side, and Cardin stood on the other end. He calmly tapped on the front door with his mace, and then counted to 10. As soon as he hit that number, he opened up the door. Sun and Russell went inside, and Cardin waited calmly.

He found himself thinking over the past, however this time his thoughts took him to Beacon. While attending that school, he was never good. He bullied, lied, and cheated to stay in school. He wanted to be a hunter because it went under the category of power. More power, more control. He scrutinized against Faunus because it was easy to do, and it gave him power. Never once did he question anything, because he never had a reason to. No matter how many times he lost, no matter how many times RWBY or JNPR humiliated his team, he never backed down.

Then came the day everything changed. Beacon, well the whole world, was attacked. Darkness consumed the sky while Grimm consumed the land. Cardin had seen what was happening far too late to act upon anything but what everyone else was starting to do, run.

But he had missed the first wave. All of those who had figured out to run early had survived, but the second group wasn't as fortunate. A Beowolf took out Sky's leg. Dove stopped to help him, but he was instantly impaled by a Death Stalker. Their auras kept them alive for a little bit, but it was pointless. Teeth, claws, stingers, everything was upon them. Cardin and Russell knew that they couldn't save them, so they kept running. He would never forget their screams. Screams of both pain and horror as shock led them to keep their auras up past the point where they could even hope to live.

Cardin and Russell had made their way through the woods. Luckily, only a few Grimm ever attacked them. They were always able to hold them off, and they were always able to survive. Then came the day a few stray Beowolves caught them off guard. Both of them were tired, neither of them had much energy left over. Cardin just remembered staring into the mouth of the Beowolf, and thinking that this was it. His whole, worthless life, was about to be over.

Then came the unexpected. A series of gunshots had rung out, and Cardin had only seen the head of the Beowolf on top of him come clean off.

"Hey," someone had said. He saw a hand offered to him, and Cardin had taken it. He had come face to face with someone he knew well, Sun Wukong, the monkey Faunus. "I know you."

"Why?" Cardin had asked. "Why'd you save us?"

"Because it's the human thing to do," Sun had replied. "It's the one thing to do where we can show our compassion as a species. I don't wanna join these Grimm. My team's gone, I have to build a new one. Besides, you would have done the same for me." At that moment, Cardin had broken down. Everything that he had done in his life, was all worthless. Meaningless. Wrong. He cried for his lost teammates, and all of those that had died instead of him.

Now he had changed. Cardin had handed the leadership reigns to Sun, as he was the most street smart, and Cardin just wanted to live. Faunus, human, it didn't matter. Now his life was only in danger from one thing, Grimm.

_Inside the Home_

Russell opened up another door, and carefully waved around his saber. They had explored every room of the house, and there was nothing. That being said, it never hurt to be cautious. He checked inside of it, and noticed that there was a cabinet. He popped it open, and smiled at his findings.

"Sun!" Russell yelled out. "Would some pre-made rounds help out with your weapon?" Sun immediately jogged over to Russell, and looked inside of the cabin. There were four belts worth of shotgun shells, all of them looked about the appropriate size for his weapons.

"How lucky is this town?" Sun said happily. He took the shells, and slung them over his shoulders. He still had a few dead ones that would serve the purpose of testing the size of these. If they were too small, he could just strip them down and take the Dust out from within them.

"Maybe we're finally doing something right," Russell muttered.

"Hey," Sun said. "I know how you guys were in the past, but you can't honestly think that that's effected anything else." Russell just shrugged, and sheathed his saber. "Come on, my team's gone too. Only unlike you two, it's just me left. I didn't lead a great life, but those skills kept me alive. Whatever it is that you may have done, gone, erased. As far as we know, everyone you knew is dead. Come on Russell, let's focus on the important stuff right now." Russell just nodded, but he still felt awful sometimes.

Sky and Dove were the two people that didn't instigate. They never started a conflict, but they never stopped one either. Russell and Cardin were the primary instigators, if anything it should be them dead right now. But sometimes, things don't work out the way they should. They were alive, all thanks to Sun. For that, Russell was two things. Grateful, and curious. Grateful that he was still alive, curious as to what Sun would do with them.

_Abandoned Cabin_

Ozpin slowly tended the fire, and then sheathed his sword. He went over to the pantry, and pulled out a can of food, and he popped it open. He looked at it's contents, and saw that it was canned fruit. He easily ate it, and tossed it aside.

It was amazing to him that he had yet to see anyone in his travels. Since Glynda went down, it had been all him. He didn't desperately want company, he could survive on his own. That being said, his goal was to retake Beacon.

Beacon was originally a place of safety. The resources that that school had was outstanding. The Grimm couldn't access certain parts of it, due to several Dust seals placed around them. Very few people could lift those seals, but Ozpin was one of them. All he had to do was gather a force large enough, but that was proving to be an issue.

"Think," he muttered. "There has to be a town somewhere nearby that may be a central point. I can clear it out, and hole up there for a week. If no one arrives, I can leave it." He nodded to himself in satisfaction, and started to roam around the cabin.

People rarely built cabins out this far into the woods. Either it was old hunters cabin, or a hunting cabin. Either way, there would be a map somewhere in there. He fished around the drawers, and finally felt his hand make contact with something. He pulled it out, and read over the information on it. Many of the town names didn't stand out to him, but there was one. It was a large town, potentially overridden with Grimm. That being said, he could get a good view on it from a distance and make that judgement. If only a few were there, he could try and take it.

Ozpin tucked away the map, and looked around at the supplies. There was no sense in hurrying, the town nor any Grimm within that town would be going anywhere. He would stay for another day, and then begin the three day hike it would take to get there.

He was going to Terminum.

**End: Questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.**


	5. New Homes

Price of Living Ch. 5: New Homes

**Okay, Terminum. I understand the reference with The Walking Dead, but I needed a name. I literally couldn't think of anything else. So no worries here, it won't be like the Terminus from the Walking Dead. I literally just needed a name. Sadly no one has any other pictures of a bloody coin {apparently} so I'll just roll with this for now. Otherwise, let's resume. **

Jaune wiped off his sword, and looked around. It was now a new day in their current living arrangements in Fireston, and more things had to be done. While in the day prior they had successfully cleared out multiple houses, more had to be done. While normally it wouldn't be deemed smart to split up, Jaune felt confident that other Grimm from within the town would have been revealed. Therefor, he suggested that they go in teams of two. Jaune and Pyrrha and Nora and Ren. Each team would go out and investigate a house, take stock of it's supplies, and then leave it be. The current houses that they had would give them supplies for a very long time, but it was better to know what you had now.

Jaune strapped on his shield and pulled out his sword, and looked outside. There was no sign of any Grimm, which was a good thing. That meant a potentially easier time clearing this place out. There had to be some kind of Grimm somewhere nearby, there always seemed to be. However, if they could take proper inventory of what was in the city and gather up items to prepare a proper defense then they might be good for a while.

"Are you ready?" Someone said. Jaune turned around, and saw Pyrrha standing right behind him. She had every piece of armor strapped on, and her hair was put up in it's pony tail. Akoúo̱ was strapped to her arm, and Miló was not currently in her possession. Jaune could only guess that it was by the door, since Pyrrha had no need for it at the moment.

"Yeah," Jaune said. "I'm good. Are Nora and Ren-?"

"They're waiting in the kitchen," Pyrrha confirmed. "We're just waiting on the green light." Jaune nodded, and rose to his feet. He walked over to the kitchen, and saw the other two members of his team.

"Jaune!" Nora said happily. "Can we get going?"

"First," Jaune said, stopping Nora before she could go out. "We need to establish something." Jaune pulled out a small map of the town that Ren had discovered, and unfolded it. "Ren, you marked every door of a building that we had explored yesterday, right?" Ren nodded, and Jaune just returned to the map. "We'll keep doing it. Three marks, two vertical one horizontal, and that'll be our signal that this place is safe. Inside, we'll have to find a piece of paper and writing utensil of some kind so that we can write down the stock. Nora, Ren, you'll go to the North. Pyrrha and I will take on the south buildings. Are we all good?" Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha all nodded, and Jaune folded up the map, and tucked it away. He simply gestured for Pyrrha to follow him, and left Nora and Ren to their own devices.

Just as Jaune had thought, Miló was at the door. Pyrrha grabbed on her way out, and thus the pair set out.

The first three buildings that they stopped at had the markings. The fourth one lacked the markings, and Jaune looked at Pyrrha. She got on one side, and tapped on the door. She counted to 10, and then opened it up. Jaune raised his shield up, and walked inside. He looked around briefly, and then called out to Pyrrha. She walked inside, and looked around.

The house was widely open. It didn't have a lot of furniture inside of it, which slightly troubled Jaune. Lack for furniture could mean lack of supplies.

"I'll check upstairs," Jaune said. Pyrrha nodded, and walked off on her own. She watched as Jaune started to walk up, and she just sighed. Jaune always volunteered to be the first one in if a situation was dangerous. Pyrrha didn't want him to do that, but no matter Jaune would. It didn't matter how dangerous or what the chances were, he was the first to volunteer.

Pyrrha just ignored the thoughts, and carried on searching. She found more canned food, some small amounts of Dust, a few old weapons, and some supplies to take care of them. Pyrrha instantly grabbed the oil {since there was none at the house that they were in} and pocketed it.

"I HAVE THE PAPER AND PENCIL!" Jaune yelled out.

"GOT IT!" Pyrrha shouted back. Shouting wasn't generally recommended, but so long as there was nothing of immediate danger things would be fine. They had already clarified that there was no immediate danger to worry about anything like that, so they would shout, for now.

Jaune came back downstairs, and he waved a piece of paper over his head.

"I didn't find much else upstairs," Jaune started. "What I did find, I wrote on here. Add on your findings." Pyrrha took the paper, and Jaune tossed her the pencil as well. She started to write down all of the items that she had found, and Pyrrha made a decision.

"Hey Jaune?" She asked suddenly.

"Hm?" He replied.

"Why are you putting yourself in way of the bullet so much?" Jaune stared at her blankly, and Pyrrha let out a heavy sigh. "You're always the one to go into a house, you throw yourself into the middle of a crowd of Grimm every chance you get, you always volunteer to go upstairs, why are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"I'm not," Jaune replied flatly. "But if someone gets killed, I know it'll be me. I don't want it to be one of you."

"What?" Pyrrha asked.

"If someone gets killed, it has to be me. If not me, then someone we don't know. I won't risk the lives of my team when I know who's the most expendable."

"Jaune," Pyrrha said. She grabbed his shoulder, and looked him square in the eye. "You're our leader. We do need you, more then you know."

"I'm not arguing that," Jaune replied sharply. "What I'm arguing is that who else is less valuable? Ren keeps permanent track of our inventory and he always knows what to do. Nora is one of our better fighters and you are our best fighter and about as smart as Ren. How am I not the least expendable?"

"Because you're you," Pyrrha said quietly. "If you're not the best fighter, let me go first. But you are a lot better then you think. You protect yourself and others in a fight, you lead us from one place to the other, you have kept us alive for all this time."

"You could have lead," Jaune said quietly. "You can fill my role."

"I can't," Pyrrha said softly. "I couldn't make the choices that you do, I couldn't figure the things out that you have. You were the first to realize what the darkness really was, and you were the first to figure out what we had to do. Jaune, you are not the most expendable. You're the least expe-."

"We should get moving," Jaune said. Pyrrha looked down, and realized that she had stopped writing. "I won't argue with you, Pyrrha. I just don't want you, or anyone else to die that I care for. I don't fear death for me, I fear it for all of you. Pyrrha, let's just move on." Pyrrha sighed, and put the note underneath a small statue.

"I won't let you do this," Pyrrha said. "I'm leading the next house." Jaune nodded, and drew his weapons.

"There's no real danger here right now, anyways," Jaune said calmly. Pyrrha frowned, and moved forward. Why would Jaune do this?

_Nora and Ren_

Ren carved in three marks on the door of their second house, and nodded approvingly.

"What a great find Fireston was," Nora remarked. "Really glad Jaune decided to let us stay here." Ren nodded, and lifted up Storm Flower. "How long do you think this place'll last?" Ren shrugged, and started to walk away. Nora followed along with him, and she looked over at her old friend.

"Ren?" Nora asked. Ren looked back at Nora, and waited for a moment. "Why're you so much more... Quiet now? Why can't you just be as quiet as before."

"Things have changed," Ren said simply. "I know that. I speak when I must, because in this world wasting things isn't a luxury that we can afford."

"A lot of things can't be wasted," Nora agreed. "But words are... Words are words. That hasn't changed." Ren stopped, and looked hard at Nora.

"Everything has," Ren said softly. "Nora, for all we know, everyone we've ever known is dead. We weren't at Beacon, but we heard about it before everything turned off. It doesn't sound promising for any of them. We are alive, and we are the only ones alive as far as we're concerned. We don't leave behind small pieces of items just in case anyone may visit this place later. We don't relish over the thoughts of meeting someone knew. Now, we don't waste words because everything has to mean something. I'm sorry Nora, but everything's different now. Survival is what matters, even if it's not just on an individual scale. You three are my priority, I know you, Jaune, and Pyrrha would all say the same thing. Nora, it's not the same. I just want you to understand that." Ren turned back around, and kept walking. Nora just watched him go, and stared blankly at Ren. Ren was never one to waste words, and he had made it clear that he wouldn't waste anything now. So he had just talked for so long...

"Wait up," Nora called out. She would not lose Ren. Not now, not ever. Nora couldn't bear the thought.

She had done what she could to maintain her front. Energetic, care free, happy, but it was hard for the truth to stay behind you forever. Today, Ren had given her the truth. The truth was that none of them were ever safe, and death could occur at any moment.

It never felt good to know how close their lives were to ending. Ren and Nora had practically been born together, and they were still a pair. Ren was family, family Nora wanted to protect. He was always the smart one and Nora was always the strong one. Nora felt the need to protect Ren, no matter how well he could protect himself. Now there were two other people in her family, and Nora wanted to protect them. She was going too. That was now her goal. She would protect Ren, Jaune, and Pyrrha. She had the ability to do it. For now, she would clear buildings. If the time came around, she would clear Grimm. That was her new goal.

**End: It's shorter, sue me {please don't, I don't have a lot of money}. Building still, there is an awful lot of world building that has to go into this story so please bear with me here. Questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is always appreciated.**


	6. Digging In

Price of Living Ch. 6: Digging In

**This will ideally be the last building chapter. I'm so happy to get these done with. Let's get going.**

Yang brought the last of the items from the third house into their current residence, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's all of it," Yang announced. "Everything that you asked to be pulled in, is pulled in. Everyone here is safe, no Grimm found."

"Good," Ruby said. "Now we can relax a little bit. We'll need our strength for tomorrow, it is smarter to rest up now." The other three members of RWBY nodded, and dispersed off to the rooms that they had claimed as their own. Ruby and Weiss had both taken the two upstairs areas, while Blake and Yang had chosen to remain downstairs.

Blake walked into her room, and looked around. It was mostly colored in a light tan shade, making Blake feel almost as if she was back at Beacon. She shook her head, and jumped into her bed. She stretched out, and placed Gambol Shroud on the bed stand. All she could wonder was how long this place was going to last.

When Blake was in the White Fang, they were peaceful at first. That was her home, she had no fears. Then the White Fang turned on her, and Blake had to leave. She lived in temporary housing for a year before she finally reached the age where she could forge her transcripts and get into Beacon. That was going to be her home for four years, then she would become a huntress.

Beacon had only lasted three.

The darkness had returned, forcing Blake and her team out of Beacon. Now all Blake did was live from home to home. This wasn't ever what she wanted. She wanted a family, a place to come home, someone to even maybe settle down with, and the chance to make the world a better place. Now it looked like she had gotten one of her wishes, but all of the others suddenly became that much harder.

The door creaked open a little bit, and Yang's mane suddenly poked itself in.

"Knock knock," Yang said. Blake checked her eyes, as she always had to when thinking about the past, and then took in a deep breath.

"Come in," Blake said.

"You're supposed to say who's there." Blake gave Yang a look to signify that she was completely unamused, and Yang sighed. She stepped inside of the room, and took a look around her.

"Nice place," Yang said. "Looks identical to my room. I wonder if Ruby and Weiss have this look too?"

"You could always go and check," Blake replied dryly. Yang's expression changed, and she took a seat next to Blake. Blake looked over at Yang, and tilted her head slightly.

"You don't normally shut people out anymore," Yang said. "You only do it a few times, and those times I generally stick around and I hear you." Blake's eyes widened for a brief moment, but then she brought them back down to a normal size. Yang didn't seem to notice, and instead she carried on. "What's up?"

"I don't know what you think you hear, or what you think is going on, but it's nothing," Blake replied coldly. "I would really appreciate it if you didn't press anything."

"Alright, just asking," Yang said. She rose to her feet, and turned towards the door. "This place kind of looks like our dorm back at Beacon, huh?" Blake felt tears reach her eyes, and she just nodded.

"Color wise, yeah," she replied, trying to keep her voice even.

"I miss it," Yang said sadly. "I miss Beacon. I know that I carry on with my jokes and whatnot, but I miss Beacon. I miss all of our friends. I know we're not supposed to, but I just hope some of them are still alive. Who knows where JNPR went? We saw Cardin and Russell make it out. Didn't you say Sun's team was visiting? They could all be around." Yang stopped, and sighed.

"I'm the only one who still thinks like this," Yang said somberly. "But I'm not going to just roll over and accept that my friends are all dead. I won't do that, because I don't want to believe that."

"Stop," Blake finally said. Yang looked back at Blake, and saw how red her eyes were. "Stop talking about this. I want to believe they're all alive to, I've been searching for any signs that they might be. That being said, I don't like talking about it. Beacon was my home, and I lost it. I don't have a home anymore, again. I have a family, you guys, and that's it. So please, stop talking about this."

"Blake, I'm sorry," Yang started. "I didn't-."

"Just get out of here," Blake requested. "We'll talk later. I just need a bit." Yang nodded, and left the room. As soon as she did, Blake buried her head in the pillow, and cried.

_Upstairs: Ruby's Room_

Ruby calmly unfolded Crescent Rose, and started to drop in some small amounts of oil into the folding points, and she cautiously cleaned it off. The day had been successful, three houses were cleared out. All of the necessities that they had small amounts of were moved to the main house, and everything else was left behind for now. Yang, luckily, always left a dent in the door when she tapped on it so they knew which houses were clear and what houses weren't.

Ruby finished cleaning Crescent Rose, and then set her sights on a small map of the city that she had drawn. It was rough at best, but it would serve it's purpose. She placed her hand all around the perimeter, and started to pick out the weak points and strong points. After she marked those down, she started to think about how to strengthen the weaker points.

There was a soft knock at her door, and Ruby let out a heavy sigh.

"Come in," she called out. The door opened up, and Ruby saw Weiss' head poke in. "Hey Weiss."

"Ruby," Weiss said formally. "May I come in?"

"Sure. I thought about calling you in anyways."

"Why so?" Weiss asked as she started to walk inside.

"I'm planning out a defense," Ruby said. "If Grimm come in, I need to make sure that we can stop them before they breach the city."

"Ruby, it's our first day," Weiss said calmly. "You should relax a little bit. If you don't, you may burn yourself out. We still have to make sure that every building is clear. We're going to need you to be at full-."

"If I take a day off, we may die," Ruby replied flatly. "I can't take a day off."

"Ruby, you're exhausted," Weiss said. "You hardly sleep, even when your shift is up. You stay up all night, and then you worry all day long. Come on Ruby, sleep right now. I'll handle the planning for now."

"No," Ruby replied. She picked up the rough map, and sat down in her bed. "I'll be fine."

"Ruby!" Weiss finally snapped. "What is with you? Ozpin selected you as leader because he saw that you had the potential to do so. Not this... This shell of you."

"And as far as we know, Ozpin's dead," Ruby said bluntly. "Weiss, it's time to change and now I've grown up."

"You are not grown up!" Weiss growled. "You are even more immature now then before, because you simply refuse to-."

"To what?" Ruby asked calmly. "I know what world we live in, and I know what I stand to lose. I stand to lose my family, the people I love."

"You refuse to be human," Weiss finally said sharply. "You refuse to be the Ruby that... That... The Ruby that we all miss right now." Ruby stared at Weiss blankly, but returned to her map.

"Stay if you want to help," Ruby said. "Go if you're just here to question me."

"No, I am going to-," Weiss started.

"Get out," Ruby snapped. "Now." Weiss stared at Ruby, and sighed. "Please, I'm only doing all of this so I don't lose you." Weiss reached the door to the room, and she looked back at Ruby.

"Maybe think about us losing you too," Weiss said sadly. "Because that's what everyone else is worried about." She left the room, and closed the door firmly behind her.

_Elsewhere_

Ozpin cut through another tree branch, and double checked the security of his bag. He had been hiking all day long, and he was making a good pace. It may only take him two days at the rate he was going at to reach Terminum.

He heard some slight rustling, prompting him to turn. Ozpin saw nothing, causing him to back up slightly.

"Who is it?" He asked sternly. He calmly drew his sword, and raised it up slightly. "If you are a person, I suggest you come out now before I decide to attack." The bushes instantly parted, and a single man stepped out from them.

"Don't kill me," the man said worriedly. "I'm just a scavenger."

"I prefer to refer to you as a vulture," Ozpin said dryly. "Were you trailing me, waiting for me to die?"

"No sir," the man said. "I was following you to see where it was that you'd be going. I don't have an aura, you see. I've been spending a long time trying to unlock it, but it's been no use."

"How have you survived?" Ozpin asked.

"Luck I guess. I lost a lot of friends, but I was just wondering if you could unlock my aura for me." Ozpin raised an eyebrow at him, and the man held up his arms. "Everyone has one, right? Only a few people can unlock someone else's aura. I just saw you and thought, 'that looks like the former headmaster at Beacon.' So I knew you had to be able to."

"Interesting thought process," Ozpin said. "Are you aware of how much energy unlocking an aura might take?"

"Aye," the man said. "I am. I was just wondering, because I want to keep living. I haven't had to fight much, but if I did I might die." Ozpin nodded, and sighed.

"Come here," he said calmly. The man stepped over to Ozpin, and the ex-headmaster placed his hand on the man's forehead.

"What is your name?" Ozpin asked. "I need it to unlock your aura."

"Joshua, sir," the man said. "Joshua Regin."

"Right," Ozpin said. "Close your eyes." Joshua complied, and Ozpin leaned in close to his ear.

"I'm not wasting my aura," he whispered. Instantly, Ozpin plunged his sword into Joshua's stomach. Joshua let out a surprised grunt, and then slowly crumpled to the ground.

"I'm sorry Joshua, but no one without an aura would survive," Ozpin said. Joshua raised up his hand as blood started to pool out of his mouth. "It would be far too energy wasting for me to unlock yours, and I am simply unwilling to take the risk."

"Pl-pl-please," Joshua begged.

"All I can do, is give you a swift death," Ozpin said. He stabbed his sword into Joshua's chest, and the light left his eyes.

Ozpin lifted his sword out of Joshua's chest, and walked over to the bushes he had been hiding in. He found a small bag, and he opened it up. He identified a few cans of food and a change of clothes. Ozpin took the cans of food, and used the clothing to wipe his sword. He then took the time to start making a fire, and he set Joshua's body ablaze.

He didn't need to worry about Grimm finding it and tracking him.

**End: The stage is now set, questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.**


	7. Troubles

Price of Living Ch. 7: Troubles

**I'M BACK! Really happy to be back in action, and we'll see how long this lasts. I will say this, my pace is going to be fluctuating from here on out. With the lingering uncertainty of my health and my other side things {which will be included in the self-promitonal A/N at the end}, that'll slow down my pace from what I was doing to maybe one update a week per story. But hey, I am writing again. I'm also sorry for not including that you should NOT review that update, as I always delete those. I had plans for something y'all may wanna review the next chapter for all 4 of my fics, but oh well. Thank you to everyone for getting this story over 40 followers while I was away! Glad to see this little story is growing a bit. Let's resume.**

One foot in front of the other. That was the way that he had been living, and that was especially true after moments like this. Joshua wasn't the first man that Ozpin had mercy killed, and he certainly wouldn't be the last. After watching his friends be torn apart so violently, a mercy kill seemed to be a fair thing for them to receive. It amazed him that more people didn't request it. They always wanted the same thing, but it was never what Ozpin wanted. Why should he bother wasting his energy for them?

_Murville_

Russell carefully carved a small symbol on the door of the house, and closed the door.

"Looks to be the last of them," Russell said gratefully. "We've got everything inventoried and all of the valuables taken away. What do you think?" Sun just turned around, and started to walk away.

"I say that I want to eat and sleep," Sun joked. "Of course, I'll be delayed in that last part but regardless, I just want to rest a bit."

"If you say so," Cardin replied. He hefted his mace onto his shoulders, ensuring to keep it close just in case anything unexpected happens. "I can take first watch tonight, if you'd like."

"Nah, I'm good," Sun replied. "Besides, you're not a late night person. You're best left off early in the morning. Then again, you're not really a morning person either." Sun grinned back at Cardin, who just sighed.

"You've made that joke before," Cardin said boredly.

"C'mon, I don't have a lot of material to go off of." Cardin sighed again, and kept up a solid pace forward. Sun picked up his own, and jogged towards the building.

_Cardin and Russell really need to lighten up soon, _Sun thought. _This can only get worse right now. And if we are not already rock bottom, I'd hate to see what is._

_Fireston_

Jaune walked through the door, and only just managed to drag himself over to the couch before collapsing. The entire day had been spent going through every single home in Fireston, he was determined to finish up by tomorrow. Well, he had gone a little bit ahead of pace. They had finished the last house just as the last light was fading.

Now, Jaune was exhausted. Everyone was exhausted. From early in the morning to now, they had searched through homes. Nora had taken on the early shift, so she had been up even longer. Luckily it was Nora, she never seemed to run out of energy. But even tonight, she seemed a little... Off. She was quieter then normal. Actually, scratch that she was just quiet. Nora was hardly saying a word, which was uncommon for her. When Pyrrha had asked Ren about it, he replied by saying she had been like that.

"What a day," Pyrrha said, attempting to rally people. "But it's not over yet. Ren, shall you and I cook?"

"Why me?" Ren asked idly.

"Because you're the only other one here that can properly cook," Pyrrha replied easily. "We've got some rations that we can make something out of. Come on Ren." Pyrrha walked into the kitchen, and Ren sighed.

"I'll be back," Ren said softly. Nora and Jaune just nodded, and remained seated.

Ren walked into the kitchen, and looked over at the stove. He saw that Pyrrha already had a small, impromptu campfire setup arranged. They had gotten good at setting up a small campfire within a structure. If it was outside, the smoke would potentially attract attention {though sometimes they had to take that risk}. If the fire was too big, then the building would be uninhabitable for a brief period of time. The trick was to find the medium.

"Ah, good," Pyrrha said happily. "We have a few old cans of beans along with some Grimm meat that we haven't yet eaten. Why don't you get started on the beans and I'll deal with the meat?" Ren nodded, and opened up one of the cabinets.

"Why'd you really call me in here?" Ren asked patiently.

"Hm?" Pyrrha asked idly. While Ren's question may have seemed offhanded, Pyrrha was used to this. Ren almost never spoke, especially since after the darkness had returned. That being said, he noticed things faster then most others did. Asking why Pyrrha had called him in for a task that she was more then capable of accomplishing on her own was not very hard to deduce the actual reasons for why Pyrrha had asked for his help. Ren simply crossed his arms, his patience not willing to be tested.

"Alright, fine," Pyrrha said. "Two things. The first, Nora. What exactly did you say to her? Because I know that she is not too tired to talk." Ren thought for a brief moment, and then sighed.

"I put our world in perspective," he began. "Remnant is not Remnant, this is the darkness' world right now. Nothing can be wasted, not even words. I had to put some things in perspective for her."

"Not surprising," Pyrrha mumbled. "I'm more surprised that it took you this long." She cleared her throat, and raised her voice slightly. "Second thing is about Jaune."

"No anger towards what I told Nora?" Ren questioned.

"This has really become you," Pyrrha continued. "We all kind of needed that. You just know what this is, and we need that." Ren nodded, allowing himself a small smile. Everyone had their own way of being indispensable.

"But you mentioned Jaune," Ren continued.

"Yeah," Pyrrha said. "He has a death wish, I think. He keeps trying to ensure he dies first. He mentioned that he thinks he's the most dispensable member of the group. I was just wondering if you could... If you could talk to him."

"You have?" Ren asked. Pyrrha nodded. "What makes you believe that he'll listen to me?"

"Because you can make a better argument then me," Pyrrha said. "He doesn't believe me. He doesn't believe that he is our best bet at surviving this. Come on Ren, I know you believe me."

"I do," Ren said slowly. "I will do what I can to keep Jaune alive, as I will do the same with you and Nora. That being said, I can't say that he will change his mind."

"B-."

"Tell me Pyrrha, which one of us would you not sacrifice yourself for?" Ren challenged. Pyrrha paused, and slowly opened her mouth.

"No one," she said sadly. "I would give my life for any of you."

"Jaune is merely asserting a more aggressive role," Ren said. "You have to trust in his leading abilities to keep him alive." Pyrrha set aside the piece of Grimm that she had been prepping, and stared at Ren.

"I can't watch him throw away living," Pyrrha said sadly. "I can't watch him die. I just... I can't..."

"And you never could," Ren replied. "You've never tried to hide it all that much." Pyrrha sighed, and kept preparing the meat.

"We'll all try to keep each other alive," Ren started again, as he returned his attention to the beans. "There will be a day when we can't. Whether it'll be from starvation, or Grimm, or people, or disease, or hell even just age, that day will come. All we're doing right now is buying time, you know that, right?"

"It's an empty way to live," Pyrrha said sadly.

"So then it comes down to us to make it more full," Ren replied calmly. "Do you think you can help all of us do that?" Pyrrha nodded. "Good, because I certainly can't. I just provide helpful insight."

"Hey, you're more then fun... Sometimes... If we can read minds." Ren smiled at the joke, and Pyrrha nudged him slightly. "Let's finish up our cooking."

_Lisantros_

Ruby slowly looked around the darkened town with her scythe's scope, and sighed. What Weiss had said earlier still rung around in her head. Was Weiss right? Was she being too serious?

"Bah," Ruby muttered. She shook her head, and looked around the town a few more times. After she was done ensuring that the longer range was clear, she moved aside her scope, and leaned back. Weiss wasn't right. Ruby knew what she was doing. She was their leader. Her team had to survive.

"Mind if I sit here?" Someone asked. Ruby turned around, and saw Weiss standing right behind her.

"What're you doing up?" Ruby asked suspiciously.

"Sleep has never been easy to come by," Weiss said absently. "It doesn't even matter that we're safe now. My shift is after yours, so I figured i might as well I should stay up. Mind if I sit with you?" Ruby shrugged, and continued to stare out the window. Weiss took a seat nearby, and looked at Ruby.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Weiss started.

"It's fine," Ruby replied.

"Are you sure?" Weiss asked. "Are you sure that you're fine with the way things played out? You don't want to say anything."

"You were out of line and you recognize that," Ruby replied robotically. "It's fine."

"Then you don't know what I meant," Weiss said sadly. "I'm sorry that you didn't understand what I meant, and that you still believe this cold shell is you."

"It's not me," Ruby agreed. "I've changed. I did what you wanted me to do, I grew up."

"You became more childish," Weiss said stubbornly. "But I know that I can't convince you of this. So I'll sit here."

"Why?" Ruby asked coldly.

"Yang is going to watch over you in the day," Weiss said distantly. "Whenever it is that our whole team is together, she will be with you and she'll talk to you. When you split us into pairs, I will watch over you and I'll talk yo you. At night, I imagine you'll switch my shift and Blake's shift, then she'll talk you."

"What?" Ruby asked in confusion.

"We're going to bring you back," Weiss said. "I don't want to see you like... Like this anymore. I want the old Ruby back."

"She's gone," Ruby said, her voice going to a foreign state. "We have to move forward."

"And I'll show you that sometimes you need a piece of your past to carry on," Weiss continued. "You can't resist our efforts forever." Ruby stared hostily at Weiss, and she sighed.

"Watch me," Ruby said harshly. Weiss got up and took a step towards Ruby, who just took a swipe at Weiss. "I'd appreciate it if you left," Ruby said blankly.

"Ruby, please," Weiss started. "You have to know that all of us care. We want you to be you, no exceptions. We know that you can keep us alive no matter what. Please Ruby, I-."

"Get out," Ruby snapped. "Get out and let me finish my watch. Go bother someone else if you can't sleep, and stop being a bitch." Weiss staggered back, and her eyes grew wide.

"R-R-Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"You heard me," Ruby said coldly. "Stop being a bitch, get out, and bother someone else." Weiss' face filled with anger, but instead of acting on it, she just left the room. The moment the door closed, Ruby sunk to the ground.

_Why did I do that? _She wondered.

_Murville: The Next Morning_

Cardin looked outside, and noted down the position of the sun. He sighed, and walked over to the other rooms. He tapped on the doors, forcing the others to wake up.

"Come on," Cardin called out. "Sun, you said that you wanted for us to be up to do something."

"Yeah, give me a minute to get the final preparations," Sun yelled out. "Being a leader isn't easy."

"Better you then me," Cardin called out. He knew that Russell was getting ready, and so he went back to the front. He looked out the window, and calmly leaned back. If he was lucky, maybe he could get a nap. It was always best to be at your highest for energy, in case anything happened.

Before his eyes could close, his eyes caught something. Cardin sat up, and he walked over to the window. He looked outside, and his eyes widened. He immediately pulled the blinds over the windows, and locked the door. He ran around the house in a few moments, and checked every window and door.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he mumbled. The doors opened up, and Russell and Sun walked in.

"What's with the blackout look?" Sun asked casually.

"This is bad," Cardin mumbled. "This is really bad."

"Slow down Cardin," Russell said. "What's bad?"

"Grimm," Cardin said. "There are Grimm."

"I have Dust now," Sun said confidentially. "I can kill them." Cardin didn't answer with words, and instead walked over to a window. He gestured for Sun and Russell to come close to him, and they complied. They looked out the window, and Cardin moved aside the curtain. Their eyes widened and their jaws dropped as they looked outside.

They were completely surrounded by Grimm.

**End: Picking up the pace a bit. So self promotion. I have my YouTube channel still, /codynight22, which I am currently doing a lot for editing wise, including Cody Talks Fanfiction for those of you interested. I am also still going to be doing my weekly streams on twitch {except I didn't do it last week on accident}, also codynight22. Twitter, gotta love twitter, Codyknight22. And I have a group I'm doing videos with on YouTube, /XPHoarders. Anyways, these are all of my excuses apart from medical stuff. Questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.**


	8. Surrounded

Price of Living Ch. 8: Surrounded

**Would like to clarify something, I am not 100%. But that being said, something has to keep me on the brink of sanity and I happen to love writing. So I go that route. No big deal for me.**

Ozpin sat down and cooked off the meat from an isolated Beowolf that he had. He still had some hiking time until he reached Terminum, but for now Ozpin would cook off some meat. This was something he had become very good at.

_Murville_

The three boys all stepped away from the window, and sat there in shock. The town was completely overrun by Grimm. If it wasn't for the sheer fortune that the place already smelled like humans and that no Beowolf had seen them, they'd all most likely be dead.

"Okay, I don't have that much Dust," Sun said uncertainly. "Any ideas?"

"Die is looking like a really probably one," Russell offered.

"Any slightly less morbid plans?" Sun fired back.

"Wait them out," Cardin offered. "Wait for a few days, we have plenty of food here to last us that long. In the meantime, we can start to plan out." Sun briefly pondered his options, and then nodded.

"Seems like a good one to start with," Sun said. "Alright boys, no sense in staying up and keeping watch. We can roam the house, so long as we stay away from the windows. But really, we can't gain anything by staring at the overwhelming horde of Beowolves."

"Better to plan," Russell said. "Maybe we can come up with an idea." Sun nodded, and walked towards the center of the house. Russell and Cardin followed him, but Sun was in agony. When he had switched off to leader of the trio, never before could he have imagined something like this. It seemed to him, death was certain. He wasn't sure how, but it was certain.

_Lisantros_

RWBY all gathered around the table and ate in silence. Weiss had made sure to inform Yang and Blake of what Ruby had said, neither of them were very optimist about what she had said. Ruby referring anyone or anything as a bitch never happened before. In fact, even now in the new world, they still never heard her say that. To say it to Weiss was even more surprising, it showed how far gone Ruby really was.

What none of them could see was the guilt devouring Ruby. She had done so much in hopes to protect her team. She made herself distant because of it. Calling Weiss a bitch was necessary. She had to distance herself, make making choices easier. She couldn't be liked. Could she?

"How many more buildings?" Yang finally asked. "I know we got a fair amount yesterday, but how many more do we have to deal with today?"

"Don't know," Ruby said. "But I think that we should... We should split into pairs. Blake, Yang, resume your partnership. Weiss, you got your wish. It's far too detrimental to try and mix up our pairings." Weiss nodded, unsure of exactly how Ruby would handle things.

"Are you sure?" Blake offered. "I mean, I know that-."

"I'm fine!" Ruby snapped. Blake recoiled from Ruby's words and sheer harshness behind them, and Ruby felt her face slowly grew sadder. "Blake... I'm, I'm sorry. I lost my temper. I shouldn't have done that." Weiss shifted her gaze over to Ruby, and Ruby could feel it cut through her. It chilled her down to her heart, forcing Ruby to rise to her feet.

"We should get going," Ruby announced.

"Not until you apologize," Weiss coldly. Both girls were locked into an intense stare. Both of them feeling the cold air radiating off of each other. Ruby's fabricated to protect her team, Weiss' being born from years of neglect and poor treatment from her family. But ultimately, Weiss was cold. The innocence of Ruby snapped into play, and she dropped her cool air.

"I'm sorry Weiss," Ruby said softly. "I'm sorry for everything I've done to you as of late. But please know, I did it for a reason. I wouldn't call you a... I wouldn't call you a bitch again, but everything else I'd do again."

"You still don't understand!" Weiss said angrily. "You don't-."

"ENOUGH!" Ruby roared. Weiss cowered slightly at Ruby's aggression, and she could just see physical pain everywhere on Ruby's face. "I am done explaining what being a leader is like to you Weiss, and I am done explaining my choices. Let's just go." Ruby picked up Crescent Rose, and prepared for a very quiet walk with Weiss.

Weiss flashed a look to Blake and Yang, informing the two of them that there would be time to talk about this later. Weiss then unsheathed Myrtenaster, and followed behind the shadow of her leader.

_Fireston_

Pyrrha sat calmly on top of the room, and smiled. Jaune had the good thought to have Nora knock a hole in the roof, while Ren, Pyrrha, and him put in a way to get to the top of the building. With some more modifying, it would make for a great balcony area that they could be up there for. Pyrrha always enjoyed a higher vantage point, her choice of weapon lending itself towards that. That was why she had found the place she used to train Jaune so fast.

Luckily, this roof was somewhat flat. It had plenty of places where she could relax, including the one she was currently laying on. Her talk with Ren had made sense to her. While she wasn't as vocal as Jaune, Pyrrha would be doing exactly what he was trying to do, save everyone else. That was what made it hard to watch Jaune try and throw away his life.

"Can I join?" Someone asked. Pyrrha looked to her side, and saw the leader in question standing right behind her.

"Go ahead," Pyrrha said. Jaune sunk down next to Pyrrha, and looked over at the world.

Fireston, like many other towns, was surrounded by some forestation. There was a fair amount of open space between the forest and the town. But, just as always, the tall pines were shrouded in a slight red tint. Every building was also covered in this slight red tint, due to the red in the sky being shined down by the light of the sun. But despite all of the horror that had been brought with it, the actual red looked quite beautiful. It always looked like the trees were cloaked in autumn, and the leaf colors somehow reflected onto every object in the world.

"See anything?" Jaune asked.

"Just the red and an over-worried leader," Pyrrha joked. Jaune seemed to tense up slightly, and she nudged him slightly. "Relax, I'm kidding."

"It's hard to," Jaune said. "I'm always amazed at how well you can do that."

"Someone has to," Pyrrha said. "I just do what I can to keep the mood positive." Jaune nodded, and relaxed a little bit.

"My stance still hasn't changed," Jaune said flatly. "I will-."

"I know," Pyrrha said suddenly. "I would be surprised if you changed your stance. Every one of us is trying to keep each other alive. I know that you're saying that you're the most expendable, and I don't believe that. Ren and Nora don't either. I know that won't change your mind, but you aren't." Pyrrha finally looked over to Jaune again, and saw him staring blankly at the world in front of them.

"It's beautiful isn't it?" Jaune asked softly.

"What?" Pyrrha asked, her face riddled with confusion.

"The world," Jaune said. Pyrrha took another look at the reddened world, and then nodded.

"It is," Pyrrha agreed.

"Kind of funny I think. The world is just so beautiful looking, yet everyone left knows why it is that way. Sometimes I think it likes to remind us. Beauty can come with a cost, and love of that beauty an even bigger one." Jaune stood up, and walked to the edge of the roof.

"Standing right here, I could fall and die," Jaune continued. "But I still feel like I'm probably safer here then most other places. If I die here, I die staring at the world as beautiful as it is." Pyrrha already had her hand raised to grab onto Jaune's armor with her semblance, just in case. Before she even felt like she had to, Jaune stepped away.

"I never understood why Ozpin made me the leader," Jaune continued. "I doubt I ever will. I'm just glad I was fortunate enough to have you as second in command." Jaune climbed down the ladder, leaving Pyrrha confused. Why go through all of that effort to say that?

Downstairs, Nora and Ren were just staring out the window. Although they had cleared out the Grimm, everyone was still hesitant about leaving the building. Ren's caution was enough to ensure that Nora's curiosity didn't get out of hand.

"We should explore a bit," Nora said suddenly.

"Why?" Ren asked.

"Well, we're going to try and stay here for a while right?" Nora asked. Ren nodded, and Nora took a deep breath in. "What if we put up a wall? It doesn't have to be massive, but enough to stop the average Beowolf or Ursa from just walking in. This way, we'd always have a warning."

"Unless something like a Nevermore or a Teriphile comes in," Ren countered.

"Well, there's only so much we can do," Nora countered. "But we should be prepared, right?" Ren pondered his partner's words for a moment, and then nodded.

"We'll clear it with Jaune first," Ren said. "Then we'll get to building." Nora smiled, happy that she had this idea, and then ran off to get Jaune. Ren just watched her go, and wondered whether or not she had changed too much in the wrong direction.

_Murville_

Sun looked over the map in agony. He had desperately searched for a back way out, one that would keep them in the clear. Nothing. There was no back way, there were no tricks or traps, nothing. All he had was a certainty of demise if he stepped outside.

"Any ideas?" Cardin asked.

"Well, we die. Does that count?" Sun asked.

"Not really."

"Then nope. None. I have no clue. There is nothing here to tell me."

"Blaze of glory?" Russell offered. "We could go out and start fighting. One of us may survive, and it's so far the best thing we've got."

"No," Cardin said. "I am not-."

"So far he's right," Sun said, effectively cutting off the larger boy. "If the Beowolves don't clear out, we really won't have much of another choice. Russell, mind checking outside? You're lighter on your feet then me." Russell nodded, and walked over to one of the curtains. He slowly moved it out of the way, and his expression changed briefly.

"Guys, take a look at this," Russell said. Sun and Cardin walked over, and Russell moved the curtain aside a little bit more. Both of them looked outside, and checked around.

All of the Beowolves were either sleeping or walking around the town. None of them were looking up at all, which made things very convenient for the group, as the house was slightly elevated. What was most noticeable about everything though, was the small group of people cautiously looking out over the town.

"People?" Cardin asked.

"I count four," Sun asked. "Possibly a team from Beacon? Any bells?"

"MVRK," Russell said. He had already stepped to the side, and he had begun strapping on his shield. "I think it's MVRK."

"We could get them to join us," Cardin said. "Seven of us would have a much better chance at stopping the Beowolves."

"Well they clearly have no interest in fighting today," Sun pointed out. "They're doing everything they can to avoid disturbing anything. I doubt three people will make much of a difference to them." Cardin just stared out at those four, and tried to think of a plan.

"I have a plan," Sun said. "What crystals do we have that may explode on impact if thrown hard enough?" Russell walked over to the cabinet that they had stored the crystals, and pulled out one of the ones that they had separated from the others. The separated ones were more volatile then the rest. If they hit the ground at a high enough velocity, they would explode.

"You're gonna start a fight and force them in?" Cardin asked.

"Yeah, some variation of that," Sun said. He looked at the roof, and briefly thought for a moment. "Do we have a way to get up there?"

"Sure," Russell said. "There's a chimney here, and it's fairly large. I'm sure there's a ladder somewhere in here."

"Get it," Sun ordered. "Set it up in the chimney, and I want to see it first. I want to be sure that all of us can fit through it." Russell nodded, and went looking. Sun walked over to the main room, and looked at the chimney. He stepped inside, and looked up.

"Was this for burning bodies or something?" Sun asked. He then looked behind him, and saw Cardin waiting on him. "C'mere." Cardin obliged, and Sun stepped out of the chimney. "Step inside of it." Cardin did, and Sun checked the space around him. "Good, you'll fit, so long as you drop your armor."

"Why?" Cardin asked.

"I need all of us on the top." Cardin went silent, realizing that Sun wouldn't reveal his plan until it was necessary to.

Russell came back with a ladder, and set it up. Sun looked up the chimney, and noted that the ladder fell shy of the top.

"Right, me first," Sun said. "Cardin, you'll come in next. Russell, come up after I get him to the top." Russell nodded, and Sun began to climb. The moment he reached the top of the ladder, he noted the eight or nine feet that remained. He sighed, and propped his body in the middle of the chimney. He started to slowly navigate his way up, relying on his strength to hold his body in position. The moment he reached the top, he climbed out of it.

He looked down and saw Cardin trailing just behind him. Once Cardin reached the top of the ladder, he froze.

"Hey," Sun whispered down, unwilling to shout. "You only have to reached to a certain height of the climb. I'll pull you up the rest of the way." Cardin nodded, and started to climb up. This style of activity was not one that Cardin was used to, and he almost didn't reach Sun's outstretched hand. Luckily for him, Sun had a long reach.

After Cardin was pulled up, Russell got up very quickly. He didn't need any assistance getting up that last leg of the journey, and Sun just nodded in approval to both of them.

"What's the plan?" Russell asked.

"Well, the way I see it the Beowolves will leave eventually," Sun began. "But we don't know when that'll be. So we have to encourage them a bit."

"You're going to blow part of this place up?" Cardin asked, staring at that green crystal that sat in Sun's hand.

"Nope," Sun said. "The only way the Beowolves will leave now is if they see a meal." Cardin and Russell's eyes started to grow into horror as they realized what angle Sun was coming from. "This crystal lands close to MVRK, the Beowolves will notice them," Sun continued. "MVRK will do the smart thing, and start to run. If they don't, then the Beowolves will kill them. Either way, the meal will be complete." Sun then walked over to Cardin, and placed the crystal in his hand. "I can throw it hard enough to get it to blow at this distance," he continued. "Russell's built off of quickness, I'm built off of overall mobility, and you're strength. I need you to throw it." Cardin backed away from Sun, and looked completely conflicted.

"I won't do it," Cardin said stubbornly.

"I don't like it either," Sun said. "But it's us or them."

"You don't know that," Russell argued.

"The Beowolves are still here because it smells of people," Sun countered. "As long as we're here, there'll be a faint scent. What happens if it's a calm day and they catch wind of us? What then?" Russell went silent, and backed away from Sun. He identified the truth behind his words.

"Do it," Russell said.

"I won't," Cardin said stubbornly.

"Then we'll die," Sun said flatly. He ran over, and grabbed Cardin's arm. He forced his hand open, and left the crystal in Cardin's palm. "You decide." Cardin stared down at the crystal, and took a deep breath in. He knew Sun was right, he trusted Sun. But this was doing everything that Cardin had tried to correct. It was low, but it was necessary. There were a different set of rules that existed in the world now.

He walked towards the front of the building, and raised his arm back. He lined up his aim with MVRK, and then pulled his arm back. He threw it as hard as he could, and watched as the crystal sailed through the air. It landed on the ground, and blew up about twenty feet or so away from MVRK. The four members all stopped in stunned silence, and all of the Beowolves woke up.

They all swung their gaze towards where they had heard the explosion, and started to growl at their next meal. MVRK wasted no time in taking off in a sprint, knowing that the Beowolves would follow shortly. The entire pack did just that, and ran after the four members of MVRK.

Sun put his hand on Cardin's shoulder, and looked out at the fleeing Beowolves and nodded.

"You did the right thing to survive," Sun said. Cardin just walked back towards the chimney, and held his down in shame.

He knew this wouldn't just leave his thoughts easily.

**End: Questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.**


	9. Building

Price of Living Ch. 9: Building

**Thank you to everyone for getting me to 30 favorites!**

Cardin stared at the place where MVRK had run. He differed his stare no where else, he didn't change anything but how intently he was looking at it. His actions had cost four people their lives. No matter what was said, it was wrong. Now that Cardin was concerned about moralities, this stuck with him.

"Cardin, food's gonna be served," Russell called out. It had been a very long time since the events had taken place, and Sun had set to work opening up cans of food. Cardin choose to respond with silence, prompting Russell to walk over to the mission. "Hey, did you hear me?" Russell asked. Cardin nodded. "Then are you gonna eat?" Cardin didn't move, and Russell sighed. "You didn't do the wrong thing, Cardin."

"How can you say that?" Cardin asked. "After everything we've ever done in our lives, and now we had a chance to start fresh. Instead of helping people, we killed them instead."

"Different worlds, different people," Russell said blankly. "Back then, what we did was wrong. Hell, even now it'd be wrong. But now, it's kill or be killed. At first I thought it meant just Grimm, but MVRK taught me something, something very valuable."

"What is that?" Cardin asked angrily.

"People are just as dangerous as Grimm," Russell said. "People can kill us the same as a Grimm can. People can even lure Grimm over to us, even if it is unknowingly. Trust should be harder to earn now, and MVRK didn't get the chance."

"We didn't give them that chance."

"We didn't have a choice!" Russell finally said, his voice elevating slightly. Cardin looked at his partner, and saw that he was also struggling with this. "MVRK saw us, I saw the girl in the group looking right at us. She said nothing, she wasn't going to help. They were going to let us die to the Grimm so that they could survive, and for what purpose? So that they may live a little bit longer? No, they were going to let us die for the same reasons we let them die." Cardin finally just sunk to the ground, his body unable to take any more.

"Are you at all concerned with how fast Sun made that choice?" Cardin asked. "How he just threw away four lives without another thought."

"Faunus are a different breed," Russell explained easily. "A lot of them have had to survive through a lot at an early age, mostly thanks to people like we used to be. Tough decisions are beat into them. My guess, he just saw it as another one."

"Doesn't mean he has to have no reaction."

"Well he's a leader now. All of the good leaders we've ever had always seemed to make it look like making a tough choice had no impact on them, keep the morality up. My guess, he's just trying to do that." Cardin looked over at Russell with a small smile on his face.

"When did you get smarter then me?" Cardin asked.

"Always have been, it's not hard to do," Russell explained. Both of them laughed, and Russell extended a hand down to Cardin. "We do have to eat though. Come on, Sun made canned fruit."

_Lisantros_

They had cleared the last house. Every house was Grimm free and full of supplies. Team RWBY should've been rejoicing, but the mood was somber. Ruby had remained her moody self for a majority of the day, despite the near break through that had happened earlier. RWBY had all eaten silently, and after that Ruby had gone upstairs to plan for the future. Weiss hadn't offered her hand, despite the fact that it probably would've been valuable. Instead, she remained downstair with Yang and Blake to discuss their leader.

"Alright girls, I think you know why we're here," Weiss said quietly. "Earlier, that was either really huge or really bad. We need to sort this out."

"Ruby dropped her guard," Blake said. "You got her to drop it, Weiss. It was good."

"It didn't last," Yang contributed sadly. "Ruby snapped at Weiss the way that Weiss snapped at Ruby several times before the darkness."

"It's still progress," Blake countered. "She called Weiss a bitch last night just because she was trying to aid in a way that Ruby didn't want to be aided. This time, Ruby apologized for a lot of things and seemed it too."

"'I'm done explaining to you what being a leader is like,'" Weiss said, her voice sounding distant. "Those words make me afraid for her."

"Why those words?" Yang asked.

"Because it means that whatever is making her like this, it's going to maintain as long as she's in charge. Do you really think she'd relinquish power so easily? As much as it's killing her, she doesn't want it to be killing us as well." Yang stared at Weiss, realizing that she had a point. "I think that we have to maintain our current plan and keep showing her love and support."

"So far it isn't doing jack shit to help her, princess," Yang said bitterly. Ruby's well being was one of the few things that Yang had always been concerned about. To watch her just tear herself down and be so depressive was killing Yang as much as it was killing Ruby. It made waiting difficult, and the idea that the wait could be even longer even harder.

"So far it has helped a little bit," Blake said. She placed her hand on Yang's shoulder, and looked her straight in the eyes. "Please, Yang, we have no better plans."

"So we think of one," Yang said harshly.

"I am all ears Yang," Weiss said finally. "If you have absolutely any ideas on how to make Ruby, my partner for four years now, better, I am all ears. It hurts us, maybe not the way that it hurts you, but it hurts us too." Yang paused, and her face grew a little sad as she realized how right Weiss was. Blake's ears had caught onto another part of what Weiss had said.

"How do you know it's been four years?" Blake asked. "The darkness returned in our third year at Beacon."

"Moon cycles," Weiss said. "It's all guess work really, since I'm not sure about blue moons, but it's been seven months since the darkness returned."

"How the hell are you reading moon cycles?" Yang asked. "The thing is in pieces."

"It still holds the general shape of a moon," Weiss explained. "The times when parts of it aren't visible still look roughly the same. Like I said, it's all guess work. But I think it's been seven months."

"You didn't deem this valuable information?" Blake asked.

"So what? I could bake us all a cake on our fourth year anniversary at Beacon?" Blake pondered this for a moment, and then nodded.

"Fair play."

"Wait, seven months?" Yang asked. Weiss nodded, and Yang's expression changed to one of worry and amusement, which was admittedly a very strange duo. "Then you better prepare Weiss," Yang said slyly. "It's pretty close to being the time of year when you rule."

"What?" Weiss asked.

"It's gonna be winter."

_Fireston_

Jaune actually felt very at ease for once. Nora had made the suggestion of making a wall to him, and Jaune had readily agreed to it. Pyrrha and himself had successfully dragged any and all items that would aid in making a wall out of the homes, while Ren and Nora worked on setting it up.

A wall made a lot of sense, and Jaune was surprised that no one else had come up with the idea earlier. He was even more surprised that it was Nora who had first come up with the idea. It wasn't that he thought that Nora was stupid, it was that between Pyrrha and Ren, you had two of the smartest people at Beacon and probably in Vale. He would've expected this from them, but Ren had assured them that this was all Nora.

And so they had set to work. All day long they dragged out items and started to fashion a wall. The items were held together by makeshift ropes and bars, and they ranged from desks to beds. Though, Jaune could tell that they would eventually run out of things to use. That was a problem for a future time.

"Guys," Jaune called out. "We need to get back to the house. It's almost sundown." Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha looked up at the sky, and then down at Jaune. Everyone dead stopped what they were doing, and walked back towards the house. Pyrrha floated towards Jaune and leaned towards him.

"Can I talk to you when we get home?" Pyrrha asked. Jaune nodded, and Pyrrha floated back out.

"That was good progress today," Nora said happily. "We got done at least 1/8th of the town, and we'll only get faster at doing this."

"Nora's right," Ren said. "I say five or six days before we finish the wall completely." Jaune nodded, and looked back at Nora.

"Really good job Nora," Jaune said. Nora smiled, and gave a clumsy bow towards Jaune.

"Thank you, my liege," she said giddily. No matter what Ren said, there was always that side of Nora that was truly a kid at heart. Ren was also smiling at Nora. Childhood friends that could better be described as siblings, and he really didn't want her to change that much. There had to be something he held onto.

The four of them arrived at the house, and walked inside. None of them had eaten much, so Ren set to work in the kitchen. Nora jumped onto the couch, and slowly leaned back as if she was going to sleep. Jaune was about to follow her, but he heard a cough behind him. He turned to see Pyrrha waiting on him, her hand pointed at the upstairs area.

"Right," Jaune muttered. He walked towards the stairs, preparing his detailed explanations of everything that he had done as a leader and why he'd sacrifice himself for his friends if it came down to it. When he reached upstairs, he saw Pyrrha in her room. He took one last breath, and walked inside.

"What's this about?" Jaune said, trying to sound formal.

"It's about earlier," Pyrrha said. Jaune opened his mouth to speak. "My turn first," Pyrrha said instantly. He closed his mouth, and looked patiently at Pyrrha.

"It was just so strange," Pyrrha began. "You talked about so many things, the first thing being how beautiful the world was. Then you said some other things, but you finished off with talking about how you were glad that I was your second in command." Jaune nodded, not disagreeing with any of these words. "What was that about?"

"You talked about me not being dispensable," Jaune said. "I explained why I am."

"That doesn't help me at all," Pyrrha replied.

"And it's not supposed to," Jaune said shortly. "Now, am I done here?"

"No," Pyrrha replied. "One more thing." Jaune sighed, and Pyrrha gestured for him to sit down, noticing how long he'd been standing up. "You said something else about beauty, and I don't know if this is the piece I'm overthinking or under-thinking and missing the point of."

"What is it?" Jaune said. Outside he remained cold and collected, but inside he was nervous. Nervous that Pyrrha had overthought it and come to the right conclusion.

"Beauty can come with a cost," Pyrrha started. "And love of that beauty an even bigger one. Were you talking about the world or-? Or something else?"

"Depends on what you think that something else was," Jaune said calmly. Pyrrha looked at Jaune, her eyes trailing over to a scar that rested on his cheek. It was only there because he had refused help healing it when it was first opened by a stray Ursa claw. He had gotten it pushing Pyrrha out of the way, and it ran from the top of his left cheek down to nearly his jaw. It gave her that final push, that final thing that she needed to say what she thought was true.

"Me," Pyrrha finally said. "Love of me. Jaune, do you... Do you love me?" Jaune stared at Pyrrha, and kept his composure. One more thing to say, one more lie, and this would have never happened. All he had to do was say it, the one word.

"Yes," Jaune said. He instantly recoiled at his own word. That wasn't the lie. Jaune rose to his feet, and walked towards the door. Pyrrha closed it with her semblance, and dragged Jaune back a little bit with it as well.

"Don't you run on me Jaune," Pyrrha said, her own voice sounding strained from emotions.

"I love you," Jaune said. "I love you so much, I can't stand the thought of losing Ren or Nora, but you... If I lose you I don't know what I'd be able to do. I love you, I can't help it. I just..." Jaune pulled off his armor, and walked towards the door again, determined to outmuscle Pyrrha's semblance. Tears had risen to his eyes. This was the one thing that if he had said it, it could end any friendship he had with Pyrrha.

Once he reached the door, he tried to open it up, and found it holding back not at all. He paused for a brief moment in surprise, but that moment was all that Pyrrha needed. She spun Jaune around to face her, and kissed him. Jaune felt completely shocked, but then he returned. Pyrrha held him there for a few moments, and then pulled out of the kiss.

"I love you too Jaune," she said calmly. "I always have, and I'll be damned if I let you get yourself killed now that I know that you love me." Jaune closed his eyes, and sunk to the floor. When a human body is lifted from under a huge weight, sometimes it's enough to bring you to the floor.

_Forest_

Ozpin slowly stalked around the woods. It was nighttime, but he didn't want to rest. Not yet, not until he had found a good place to rest.

Ozpin was forced to come to a standstill. He saw Beowolves, a small pack of them, a dozen wolves in whole. He had no hope of killing all of them, nor did he really want to leave them be. Instead, he drew his sword. Most of the pack was asleep, but one of them was awake. It was standing nearby a tree, sniffing into the air.

Ozpin quietly stalked over to it, and he thrust his sword into it's chest. Without another word, he dragged the Beowolf away, and smiled.

One down, eleven to go.

**End: Big chapter, setting up for some things. I will be doing an AMA {ask me anything} one the RWBYOC subreddit this Thursday at 12:00 PM MST, or 3:00 PM EST for an easier conversion. Drop by if you have any questions, nothing's off limits. Other questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback that y'all wanna leave here is always appreciated. **


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